Quote Originally Posted by Danno View Post
Sorry to disagree Trevor but I think is has taken 6 decades to erase some of the damage brought on by the importation of such a long line of hacks...yes there were a couple of exceptions to that rule, the breed down under was in my opinion up until that point superior to what was on offer in the US and Canada, mainly due to a couple of exceptional sires that emerged locally AND a distinctly different gene pool that has never been given credit for its influence.
My fault Dan, I wrote with much haste. Perhaps I should have used the word DESPITE before mentioning the Simpson imports. Old Noel certainly foisted plenty of greyhound feed upon us over the years. I heard many decades ago that Thor Hanover was the dearest stallion he bought, I believe for US $25,000. Most of his run of the mill purchases were in the $3 - 6K bracket. Many performed accordingly at stud. I heard the only reason he was able to buy Thor is the Yanks didn't rate him as a stallion prospect. As good as he was as a sire of racehorses I believe Thor's record as a broodmare sire paints the Yanks as being pretty astute.

No doubt one of Noel's greatest legacies was for studs to set their sites higher when obtaining stallions capable of improving the breed. Bernie Ahern, who new more about money than he did about standardbreds, set the ball rolling buying Hilarious Way and Kentucky in the 1970's. Would Alabar be the breeding business it is today had Allan Galloway not bit the bullet and obtained three outstanding sires in the late 1980's - Safely Kept, Whats Next and Golden Greek? Later on, Armbro Operative proved an outstanding sire

A study of Vincent's pedigree shows how much the breed has improved over four decades from the time a humbly bred Holly Sand mare landed in Australia. Hilarious Way, Kentucky, Armbro Operative and Safely Kept popping up on his maternal side, and being by Art Major, gives Vincent a compelling case to make a stallion. I reckon it is a pretty good story.